Suzanne Zumbrunnen holds the AICE Hall of Fame trophy bestowed upon her late husband, beloved editor Eric Zumbrunnen. She is flanked (l-r) by three directors who presented her with the honor and were frequent collaborators and close friends of Eric: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris and Spike Jonze.

Editor Jim Haygood of Union Editorial won the Best in Show this evening (5/10) at the 2018 AICE Awards for excellence in the postproduction arts. Haygood was recognized for his work on “Web of Fries” for Taco Bell, a parody movie trailer for a thriller starring actor Josh Duhamel that promoted the brand’s introduction of its Nacho Fries product.

The spot, created by Deutsch, helped Haygood emerge as the most-awarded editor or postproduction artist at the show, winning four trophies: Best in Show, Best of West, Dialogue/Monologue/Spoken Word and Storytelling.

The second most-awarded at the show was Mark Grassia of Trident Post Production in Quincy, Massachusetts, who took home three AICE Awards, winning in the categories of Best of East, Digital Content-90 Seconds or Under, and Sound Design, all for Adidas’ “Form the Future,” a fast-paced, high-tech spot promoting the brand’s AdiZero sporting apparel for professional hockey.

The AICE Awards--now in its 17th year, but it’s first under the AICP banner--presented winners in 18 categories that honored the excellence and skill of the editor as well as nine craft categories which recognized artists in the disciplines of audio mixing, sound design, color grading, graphic design, visual effects and original music composition. In addition, Best of Chapter winners were also presented to the best work emanating from companies located in each AICP Chapter (East, Midwest, Minnesota, Southeast, Southwest and West). To view the winning entries, click here.

Winning two AICE Awards each were editor Jeff Ferruzzo of Arcade Edit and colorist Luke Morrison of The Mill. Ferruzzo won in Comedy for P&G’s “It’s a Tide Ad,” created by Saatchi & Saatchi, and shared the award for Broadcast National Campaign with Arcade Editors Kim Bica and Brad Waskewich for NBC’s “NBC Olympics.” Morrison won in Color Grading – 90 Seconds or Under and Best of Midwest for “Be Olympic” for the Canadian Olympic Committee and Sid Lee.

Overall, Arcade Edit was the most-represented company in the competition, with eight of its editors winning awards in five different categories: in addition to Bica, Ferruzzo and Waskewich, other winners were Ali Mao in Fashion/Beauty for “Active Lifestyle Essentials” for Clinique; Greg Scruton in Music Video for Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble;” and Graham Chisholm, Geoff Hounsell and Paul Martinez in Online Campaign for Activision’s “Reassemble.”

Work from the VFX artists and colorists at The Mill earned a total of four AICE Awards: in addition to Morrison’s winners, colorist Gregory Reese won in Color Grading-Music Video for Portugal.The Man and the company won in the Visual Effects category for its work on Monster.com’s “Opportunity Roars.”

Hall of FameThree editors were posthumously inducted into the AICE Hall of Fame at the awards presentation. Michael Bartoli of Hybrid Edit, Chris Hafner of Cutters and Eric Zumbrunnen of Exile were all honored for their bodies of work and contributions to the industry. The awards presentation was dedicated to their memory and to several other members of the L.A. post community who’ve passed away, including Linda Carlson and Angela Dorian of Rock Paper Scissors; Mary O’Gara, a producer and EP who worked at several VFX and post companies; and Daniel Spencer, an editor at Hybrid Edit.

The inductions of Bartoli, Hafner and Zumbrunnen were quite moving, celebrating not only their artistry but their humanity. Brief film remembrances looking back on their careers and lives were screened for the audience. Presenters for Zumbrunnen’s induction were directors Spike Jonze of MJZ and the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Dayton/Faris) of Bob Industries. Dayton and Faris recalled their first meeting with Zumbrunnen, when he was an office runner and PA at Varitel Video in the 1980s. “We got to know him and his wit,” said Dayton who saw Zumbrunnen constantly learning and absorbing what was around him, leading to Dayton/Faris inviting him to cut a project for them. This in turn led to assorted collaborations, largely music videos, as the directing duo noted that Zumbrunnen’s skills as an editor were amazing, particularly the handling of music. Dayton noted that somehow Zumbrunnen made you hear and feel the music better. Dayton/Faris even started a boutique company with him, with a name reflecting what Faris described as Zumbrunnen’s wry sense of humor: Whipping Post. It was housed in the basement of Superior Assembly.

It was at Superior Assembly where Jonze met Zumbrunnen, leading to a deep friendship and longstanding collaborative relationship spanning commercials (including the lauded offbeat Kenzo World adventure) and features (Her, Being John Malkovich, Where the Wild Things Are). Jonze remembered Zumbrunnen as an “incredibly intelligent” editor whose grasp of performance was “immaculate.” Jonze described Zumbrunnen as “the guy I relied on.” Jonze said he was grateful to have worked with Zumbrunnen for some 20 years, noting that a director and editor spend a lot of time in a room together. “I’m glad I got to do it with one of my best friends,” Jonze affirmed.

Editor Tim McGuire, CEO of Cutters Studios, presented the Hall of Fame honor posthumously to Hafner. McGuire worked with Hafner extensively, observing his positive impact on others. McGuire described him as “an artist in every sense of the word,” a wonderful mentor to assistants, helping them to grow and advance. This mentoring and nurturing of others was evident during Hafner’s career prior to Cutters, which included his shop Brass Knuckles, a spawning ground for talent. McGuire said Hafner was “different” and “special” not only as an editor, a director and a musician but as a person.

Editor Susan Munro partnered with Bartoli at Hybrid. In making the Hall of Fame presentation, she described Bartoli with a series of nouns and adjectives ranging from “funny” to “listener,” “mentor,” “mischievous,” “loyal,” “family man,” “crazy” and “prankster.” She said that “Bart” was being honored by AICE “as much for his talents as for how he is as a person.” Munro added that he was “my creative partner and one of my best friends.” In introducing the film looking back on Bartoli’s life and career, Munro pointed out that those interviewed for the piece talked in the present tense. That’s because Bartoli “lives on in all of us.”

Camp KuleshovAlso, the winners of the 2017 International Camp Kuleshov trailer competition for assistants were saluted for their achievements. They included Alex Heisterkamp of Lucky Post in Dallas, Jordan Stalling of Particle Audio in Chicago and Thom Reimerink of jumP in L.A.

Commenting on the quality of the work seen in the category winners, editor Jen Dean of Consulate, a member of the awards’ Curatorial Committee, said, “I feel it’s only getting stronger and more complex as our industry produces so much content in varying lengths. This gives editors, colorists, sound mixers, VFX artists and others working in post so many ways to stretch their creative legs.”

Regarding the Best in Show winner, Akiko Iwakawa, editor/partner at Cut + Run and also a member of the Curatorial Committee, said it impressed the jury by hitting on almost all cylinders. “This one came in a head above all other work,” she explains. “Great performance and dialogue editing, hilarious timings, creative transitions, great sounds and mood--definitely a great achievement by the editor to bring all these elements together to successfully deliver this rather complex ad, using the premise of a ‘thriller’ trailer spoof, but at the same time telling the story of the ‘fake’ movie, all while keeping me smiling the whole way through.”

Added Dean, “Even after many viewings it was difficult to pick out any flaws. The timing was impeccable, and this included not only the picture edit, but the use of sound and music, the dialogue editing, the speed ramps and just how perfectly it spoofed the traditional trailer. The idea was obviously so fun, but I felt the editor combined so many different editing skills to create such a perfect piece of storytelling.

“As judges, we’re really focused on how much the post production contributed to the process, and in this case, it seemed on multiple levels you could feel the hand of the editor,” she continued. “Ultimately it was the timing that created the drama; there wasn’t one skill dominating, all had equal footing and it was just perfect!”